Films The Official bit-tech Movie Thread - What have you seen lately?

Ahhh, I don't recognise the name as I've only read books so far...

 

Wes Chatham went into the auditions as a big Amos fan.

BTW - Wales Comic Con (in Telford Apr 25-26) just announced they've booked Thomas Jane (Miller) as a guest.

 

That's awesome, but... Why is Wales Comic Con in England? Granted it's not far over the border, but that's not the point...

Still, might take a little trip up there for it, they've got some awesome guests booked: Thomas Jane, James Marsters, Mark Sheppard, Michael Shanks, Summer Glau, Jewel Staite, Clive Standen... Plus there are some awesome roads en-route (if you avoid the M5), would be a good bike trip.

 

Ford V Ferrari 7000rpm/10

A brilliant cinematic adaptation of the relationship of Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, the development of the legendary GT40 and taking it to win the Le Mans '66. Script, cast, editing; 2.5 hours flies by and Bale absolutely knocks it out of the park.

cannot recommend it enough.

 

It was held at Wrexham's Glyndwr University from 2008, but moved last year when it became clear that they'd outgrown the venue.

 

Not a film, but it might as well be.

Frank Herbert's Dune (aka, The Dune Miniseries, aka Dune 2000, etc).



An adaptation that actually follows the story, as opposed to making a mockery of it like the 1984 David Lynch.... ummm.... thing.

Still lots of problems with it: the costumes are...bizarre; the headgear/hats are simply comical; the CG is terrible even for a 20yr old series; Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam was played very badly; Paul Atreides starts off as too much of a sullen little git; Alec Newman looks too old to play a teenage Paul Atreides (IIRC Kyle MacLachlan was around the same age, if not older, in the 1984 film but he looked young enough to be convincing); Baron Vladimir Harkonnen does not fly; and The Eyes of Ibad ("spice eyes") do not glow.

That said, it is a much more faithful adaptation and well worth watching - if you can get hold of it. Ian McNeice is fantastic as the Baron, far more more convincing and far more sinister than the cartoon villain in the 1984 film. It also doesn't portray Paul Muad'dib as a living god like the 1984 film basically did.

Solid 5/7. It's good, follows the book pretty well, but still has its flaws that are sometimes hard to look past. If you've only ever watched the original 1984 film then do yourself a favour and watch a proper adaptation.

I've just started episode 2 of the "sequel", The Children of Dune, and so far it's very good indeed, shaping up to be even better than the first series.

Spoiler: Srs spoiler for Dune Messiah/Children of Dune EP1

I was on the verge of ugly crying when Chani died. I don't tend to have much of an emotional reaction when reading books, but watching that scene in that episode... damn...!

Roll on Denis Villeneuve's new Dune film in December, looking forward to that!

 

One Upon A Time etc.

I liked it. Thought the ending was stupid, then when I read about why he had done it like that I did shed a tear (basically he wanted them to have the happy ending they didn't get).

Avengement (Netflix) I've watched this twice now. I thought it was ace. Very violent, though.

 

Bad Boys For Life - 7/10

It's kind of what you'd expect except Martin Lawrence is fatter than the last one.

The baddy lady is very pretty.

 

Terminator - Dark Fate - 6/10

Basically a remake of T2. ( I think its that one) They need to end the series there. Its still a watchable film but doesnt set the world on fire as we have seen it all before, literally.

 

The Dead Don't Die - Adam Driver/Bill Murray

Zombie film where the premise is that fracking at the north and south poles have flipped the Earth's axis resulting in Zombies...

I saw the trailer for this a while back and thought it looked interesting and thought it might be worth a watch when it came up in iTunes for £3 this week. I was wrong.

Adam Driver is just monotone throughout, the jokes aren't funny (even breaks the 4th wall a couple of times) and the horror aspects aren't scary.

Spoiler

Example: Listening to the radio in the car Bill Murray asks "Why does this song sound familiar?" Adam answers "Because it's the theme Song"

For a film with a lot of recognisable names (Bill Murray, Danny Glover, Steve Buscemi, Tilda Swainson, Iggy Pop, Selma Gomez, Adam Driver, RZA) this was incredibly boring, and it makes you wonder why any of them signed up to be in it

Spoiler

When Bill asks Adam why he's been saying "This is going to end up badly" all day he replies "well, because I've read the script". Maybe when Bill says he was never given a complete script he's actually telling the truth?

If you want to watch a zombie film with Bill Murray in it, just watch either of the Zombieland films instead.

 

US 7/10 bit late to getting round watching this one and alot my friends have had lots of nice things to say about it. pretty good film, i saw the twist very early on. like the fact the film doesnt let it self get too bogged down with trying to explain the small detials. and im very confused why peaople tag this film as a "horror" film, its an interesting/intriguing film not a scary one

 

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Finally got round to watching this last night, been a while since I've seen 7/8 so probably should have reminded myself the setting/what had happened etc.
Felt a bit all over the place at times going here and there, but overall I enjoyed it

 

Joker 8/10 not much to be said about this film that hasn't been said before a depressing yet thoughtful take on the origins of joker, from what i had read and ehard from friends about this movie i honestly thought id be very bored watching it. im glad they based it in 80s and thus avoiding all the social media esque spam fest which surley would have manifested during the riot scenes

 

John Wick 3 - Bäääm/10

Too many, too long fights. More kills than Charlie Sheen in Hot Shots!.
Good if you like it I suppose, but might as well have been looking at YouTube tae-kwan-do video's

 

Nobody I know got the connection to the

Spoiler

Manson family

, all thought they were just random Tarantino-baddies turning up in the end because Tarantino.
Also, the hippy commune was for us just a freaky hippy commune, didn't see the

Spoiler

Manson family

connection.
Then again, the entire

Spoiler

Manson-whatshername

thing is pretty much unknown, outside the US i guess?

 

Ford v. Ferrari - 7/10

It was.. Well. A Hollywooding of history. Worth seeing but I'm not sure I could go through it again.

 

Dark crystal: Age of resistance (Netflix)

9/10

If you enjoy the fantasy genre at all then give this a watch. Great acting and puppetry. The characters have depth and the story is nuanced.

 

Stan & Ollie - 5/10
Well played, but essentially boring.

Alien: Covenant - 6/10
As usual, I like the Sci-Fi part, not the shock-horror part.
But that may just be me

 

Finally got around to watching Phase 2 of Part 3 of Marvel.

Spiderman Homecoming rounded it off and that was dire. I enjoyed Endgame Part I more than Part II and Captain Marvel next after that. The rest were quite meh.

 

Hobbs and Shaw - 7/10
Very entertaining, old fashioned over-the-top action movie with two guys that are not afraid to make fun of themselves.
Don't try to make sense of it, just stay on for the bang-boom-bang and comical elements.